J.J. Abrams Owes His Movie Career To Tom Cruise

J.J. Abrams' four movies have grossed more than $1 billion at the
box office for Paramount, but the studio only worked with him
because Tom Cruise forced it to, the director and producer said
at the Produced By Conference on Saturday.

Cruise was about to star in the third “Mission: Impossible” movie
for another director, but when that director couldn’t do it,
Paramount was left searching for someone new. Cruise invited
Sherry Lansing over to his house — with Abrams in
attendance.

“When Tom said
we’ll delay the movie a year, and J.J. is going to direct it, I
watched the head of the studio have an aneurysm,” Abrams
joked.

Abrams was in fine self-deprecating form on Saturday and told
that story in response to a question “Django Unchained” producer
Reginald Hudlin asked about “Mission: Impossible — Ghost
Protocol.” Hudlin, moderating a keynote at the conference, was
thrilled Abrams convinced Paramount to give such a massive
franchise to Brad Bird.

Cruise
went to great lengths to boost Abrams' career.Paramount

Bird's success prior to "Ghost Protocol" was in directing
animated films such as "The Incredibles.” The real
difficulty, Abrams said, was convincing Paramount to give him the
franchise first.

“There was a movie before ‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’
called ‘Mission: Impossible III,’ when a TV director was shoved
down the throat of the studio because Tom Cruise said, 'I want
this guy to direct the movie,'” Abrams said. “I’d been Brad Bird
and seen what it was like to be the guy who wasn’t the obvious
choice.”

That movie went on to gross almost $400 million
worldwide. When it came time for the next “Mission:
Impossible” film, Abrams' own success made his request for Brad
Bird, dare we say, easy.